Participatory budgeting

The idea of participatory budgeting started in Brazil in 1989. Today, it has been adopted by by nearly 1,500 nations, states and cities worldwide.

The idea is this: community members vote and decide how to use public funds. It’s a much more direct budgetary policy and in the United States only Chicago, New York City and Vallejo, Calif. have adopted it.

“If the citizens say burn the money, you burn the money,” said Tiago Peixoto an open government specialist at The World Bank.Plus the idea is to tied together individual preference with the collective needs of the community.

Peixoto spoke Sunday about how participatory budgeting (PB) can help involve more people in civic affairs. He provided examples of how in certain areas of Brazil, mobile technology was used to reach out to people about PB plans. Using technology, he said, increased public participation by 30 percent.

Vallejo councilwoman Marti Brown said that the city is trying its first PB process. They’ve allocated about $3 million, about 2 percent of the city budget, for the initial attempt, which she said got mixed support from the council.